Idea for handling loot in APs

[J-Bone]

When I run my APs I like them to go fast and smooth, as such I'm thinking of moving away from the idea of handing out the loot detailed in the APs. I find that rewarding x number of copper, gold, Platinum and valuable objects combined with mwk or magical this-and-thats, tends to be a bit of a time sink. Especially when it comes to the party dividing the loot and occasional drama that ensues when two players want the same item and looking up item costs for selling all seems to slow down my games. So what Im thinking of doing is rewarding the entire party up to its expected wealth by level each time they level and then let them go shopping on their own (in-between games) with my supervision of whats allowed.

I may lower the pay day if they miss, not bypass, certain treasure rooms or fail in encounters. But otherwise grant them full incremental WBL.

I'm also considering dropping consumables as an exclusion from WBL. So the occasional Cure Light Wounds potion won't hurt them.

So I'm looking for opinions, is this a good idea? What problems may come of such a policy? Are there recommendations I should consider in adapting this?

[Skeld]

Personally, I think it's a lame idea. I don't like it as a GM and I doubt I would care for it as a player (now I know I won't find a cool item while I'm adventuring, I'll just get a pile of gold when I level that I can take to Magi-Mart and buy whatever I need).

I understand why you want to do this (making your GM life less complicated). You need to talk it over with your players. If they're down with it, give it a try. It might work well for your group.

-Skeld

[Briit]

I like it, sometimes I come up with a character idea that is gear dependent and won't have to worry about finding this one special item that will pull my character idea together. This would help.

[Kennesty]

I have this little wooden chest, when my players earn loot I have a slip of paper folded up.

This paper on the exterior says "Weapon" or "Armor" or "Vial".ect.. it has the weight on it, where the loot came from (Boss name or location (A9), this is just so I can keep things organized) and the DC to beat to identify the item.

So for Example with a Cloak of Resistance:

Cloak, 1 lb., A9, DC 20 Spellcraft.

This folded paper is closed with a paperclip, which they can open and reveal the inside by beating the check. Inside will have:

Cloak of Resistance +1, 1000g. Or any other secret details. Players have the ability to look-up items on their phones. What this does for my group, besides being really fun to open up a chest and tons of paper slips is save time for me reading off loot. If you are looking to increase play-time, this definitely works. If they fail rolls they can go back to it on another game day to Identify the item and I don't need to check what item it is by rolling back to a previous page. This does however create some extra prep for the DM, so be ready for that.

[Celanian]

I'm using this with my WotR campaign and for the most part, it's working very well. Players are very happy, encounters are balanced, and it makes my life much easier.

One unintended side effect I ran into is that one of my players started taking lots of scrolls of spells that were of higher level than his character could normally cast. I wasn't really comfortable with this, so I limited all PCs so they could only take scrolls 1 level higher than they could cast naturally and only 3 scrolls per level.

Another factor you need to consider is how you would handle crafting. If you give the full 50% discount and allow 1 person's crafting feat to help the entire party, you'll skyrocket their WBL probably beyond what you may intend. My suggestion would be to either ban crafting, allow the craft feat to only benefit the PC with the craft feat, or allow it but give a lesser benefit to other PCs.

Finally, you'll need to make a decision on how you handle spells with expensive material components. What I did was to require players to reserve some of their WBL for this purpose. If they didn't do so, they would have to sell off some of their gear at 1/2 price to raise money for things like Restoration or Raise Dead spells.

[J-Bone]

@ Celanian - Yeah I've shut down crafting. I mostly became inspired to do the wealth this way by playing a lot of PFS and found that a lot of people really enjoy the shopping aspect of the game.

In regards to buying the high level scrolls, interesting. I'll have to keep that in mind.

Also with the raise dead and other costly spells, similiar to your suggestion, I put a price tag on them and they had to pay it up.

One thing I also have to keep an eye out for is players thinking of loaning each other money. I think that like in PFS, your money stays with you and can't go to other PCs.

@ Briit, yeah this is something I was also considering. Sometimes a certain item can really make a character and I want my players to get the chance to get it.

[Lord Snow]

What I did with my campaign is simply find story excuses to dump wealth unto my PCs at some spots and ignore loot for the rest of the game. So if they defeat a bunch of bandits they don't have to go through their pockets, and we almost never waste time searching for loot in random dungeon rooms. Instead, every now and then the PCs will receive a large reward or payment from an NPC.

I didn't quite dispense with loot altogether - if the PCs are searching an ancient temple or something there is some juicy stuff to be found - but the more pedestrian parts of looting are just not to my taste.